a lot can happen over coffee…..

Today I was waiting for a friend at CCD. This was the first time I was alone at this place. Usually when you are with a group of friends somehow you become oblivious to others.. So, here I was sitting all alone. In the beginning I felt really awkward, it reminded me of my days in Nerul, and how much I dreaded eating at restaurants alone.

Anyway, one positive thing about the whole situation was it gave me a chance to observe people.

It was 4:30 in the afternoon, and a gang of young college girls rolled in just about when I came. Probably in FY or SY, they were seated right behind me, and giggled away, right from the moment they came in. Although I coudnt see them, they seemed to be imitating some Prof, then went into long discussion of what to order and finally started to gossip!! In the middle I could hear them giggling at something or the other.. Earlier what seemed amusing, gradually became boring, even a tad bit irritating…                                                                                                                                                        But isnt this how I behave even today, when I’m with my girlfriends..I thought, and smiled… I missed them soo much and thought as to how we never seem to catch up lately..

Yet the memory of the good times bought a smile to my face.. oops..stop smiling..I told myself….People will think you are mad..smiling away at yourself like that!

Right next to me, I had noticed was a Marathi TV actor, wearing glares inside the cafe. In Parle one gets to see many such characters…. He seemed to be engrossed with another guy, an older one though, probably discussing a script. BTW, he’s not as good looking a guy as he looks on screen. He even had a paunch…hidden discreetly on tv using smart photography…My interest in him weaned as quickly as the serial in which he was cast…..

“Not baaaad!!” I heard a voice loud enough and instinctively turned towards the door.. Oh ya..really not bad.. A girl in a miniskirt just walked in with a guy. I checked out the girl..(!!!) who settled in the centre of the café…while her companion went to place an order…. A quick glance at the whole place and ya..just as I had guessed, all eyes were on HER…I was reminded of a little game, me and my friends used to play in Aurangabad. First we would rate a guy on his looks and then wait for him to open his mouth. Usually the scoreboard would go like…

LOOKS : “8…no I guess 9….” 

//MOUTH OPEN/                                                                                                                                                                                  

“oh no! 3!!”   😉   😉                                                                                                                                                                                                              

 I rated her a 8 ½ on her looks… As soon as they had settled, the girl started to cry..the guy seemed to be shouting. The more the girl cried, the more the guy got angry…Finally he walked out leaving the poor girl alone. I thought of all the times I had wasted my wishes (those precious eyelids which always seem to fall when you have really nothing to ask for) on asking God to make me more beautiful. …But beauty they say…comes at a virtue…

Far away in the corner were a couple, who had ordered one coffee amongst themselves…Hand in hand they spoke little and kept smiling at each other..probably making some plans for the future..

“Maam would you like to place the order..” Somebody interrupted my plans for them. 😉

“Im actually waiting for somebody” I cringed… Im not sure why, but I hate it when I have to face such situations….       I vowed never to come early again! 😉

“Ok. maam..”

And then for the first time I noticed the waiter. A young guy…definitely a maharahtrian…in the trade mark red clothes and black cap of CCD. I wondered how his life must be….working at CCD. Regularly tending to people of all kinds..Mostly youngsters coz the old (and Wise!!) definitely do not spend 200 bucks on shitty caffeine…                        And even though there were 4 employees at the counter, he seemed to be the only one to cater to people.. He went on swiftly from one table to another, waiting patiently for the couple who couldn’t decide on which coffee to take, or juggling the multiple orders (and some changes too!!!) of the gang of girls…Serving the distraught girl her coffee and the tough guys theirs…

He must be seeing so much of all of this everyday! And yet he went about as dispassionately as ever from table to table…serving different concoctions of the same thing..

My memories of a coffee shop include laughing, gossiping, shouting (till the time the waiter asked us politely to leave!)…celebrating.. making important decisions…making plans…changing plans..even crying and now this…..

Well indeed, a lot can happen over coffee…

Cheers!

Abha Deshkar

06/04/2011